REFORMING AMERICAN SOCIETY

Transcription

1 REFORMING AMERICAN SOCIETY

2 ANTEBELLUM REFORM Reform: change/improve society by removing problems Antebellum era (early 1800s) reforms: Religion Literature Institutions Prison Schools Labor Women s Rights

3 RELIGIOUS REFORM Second Great Awakening: broad religious movement that stressed individual responsibility for salvation Heaven be a good person & do good things people begin fixing society s problems to get credit Charles Grandison Finney famous preacher of SGA Hosted revivals where he d inspire people to take responsibility for their salvation Lasted 4-5 days w/ crowds of up to 20,000 IMPACT ON SLAVERY: Slave owners wanted to save their slaves & brought them to church sat in segregated pews but listened to same sermon/songs Slaves: message of salvation = hope Inspires abolition movement

4 LITERATURE INSPIRES REFORM Transcendentalism: philosophical/literary movement which stressed the American ideals of optimism, freedom, and self-reliance Ralph Waldo Emerson New England writer Emphasized living simple life Celebrates the truth found in nature and in personal emotion Henry David Thoreau Importance of individual conscience: humans know what s right/wrong, no need for laws Disobey laws that are unjust civil disobedience Optimism of reforms/transcendentalism inspires Utopian Communities Founded by experimental groups who tried to create a utopia, or perfect place

5 INSTITUTIONAL REFORMS Prison Reform Dorothea Dix: visits MA Correctional House & discovers that the mentally ill are housed in jails 1852, Dix persuades 9 Southern states to move mentally ill to hospitals Focus on rehabilitation -- treatment that might reform the sick or imprisoned to a useful position in society Education Reform PROBLEMS: no uniform educational policy existed in USA Classrooms not divided by grade, young & old together with one teacher Students drop out by age 10 to help on family farm/business. Horace Mann (1830) Advocates for tax-supported public school systems. Establishes: teacher training programs & curriculum for teachers to follow Doubled amount of $ state spent on education 1850 s every state had some form of publically funded elementary schools

6 LABOR REFORMS Industrial Revolution brings poor working conditions Poor ventilation, dangerous machines, physical demands of the job Farm to Factory Worker Lowell Mills Workers = unmarried farm girls 1828: women = 90% of workers, 4/5 under 30 yrs Girls could be paid less than men Opportunity! A real salary, could leave home, independence Immigration increases Ireland Potato Famine = About 1 million Irish immigrants America Irish willing to work for very low wages Irish face nativism (Americans want to support AMERICANS not immigrants) Strikebreakers b/c would replace any worker on strike National Trades Union Union: group of people of the same trade who band together to try to improve their working conditions. Helped standardize wages & improve conditions in the factories Supreme Court Support in Commonwealth v. Hunt (1842) Unions aren t criminal if they don t advocate violence/illegal activities

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9 ADVOCATING FOR WOMEN 1800 s: women were restricted to house Cooking, cleaning, child rearing, farming, and educating children Women = nurturing seen as moral leaders for reforming society through movements like Abolition (end slavery) Temperance (end drinking) Education for Women Healthcare Reform (improve health of all people) Women s Rights (get women equal rights)

10 ADVOCATING FOR WOMEN Education for Women: st women s college (Mt. Holyoke College in MA) 1837 Oberlin College admitted 4 women, nation s 1 st coed university st female to graduate medical school Health reform many women change fashion standards & encourage women to be more healthy Poor hygiene (everyone!) Women s lack of exercise Considered unladylike Pale was in, didn t want to get a tan outdoors! Women s fashion = uncomfortable Corsets interfered w/ breathing Amelia Bloomer Pants for women!

11 ADVOCATING FOR WOMEN Women s Rights Early 1800s, women involved with abolition & temperance Both very political movements which gained national attention Seneca Falls Convention Group of men and women gather in Seneca Falls, NY in 1848 Led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott Introduced the Declaration of Sentiments 300 women & men approve ALL parts of declaration unanimously except THE RIGHT TO VOTE Declaration passes, but women cannot vote until 1920 (19 th Amendment)